Chapter 59

*TN: Sorry about not uploading chapters yesterday. Ran some errands, met up with friends I hadn't seen in a while, went to Dave & Buster's, then went drinking, ended up at one of their cribs, and got back home at 6am today. I mean, I'm editing this on my dime, so fuck it, I ain't really sorry.*

***

"What? What the fuck is going on for you to be bothering me!?" Bach shouted impatiently.

"We-we're under attack!" The operator outside shouted through the door leaving Bach stunned for a second. He then regained his composure and adrenaline started coursing through him, waking him up. He stood up from his bed and limped to grab his cane. While doing so, he could hear the gunshots and shouts that were ringing from the middle of the camp.

"Who the fuck would have the balls to attack us? Moreover, how the fuck did they get in?!" Bach asked as he opened his door. His thoughts were running rampant as he pondered how the enemy could attack them, shouldn't they have to attack their gate first? Why was there chaos stemming from the center of the camp?

"It's a blue mech, most likely Lazoole Society's Lone Reaper! I witnessed a jet drop him off!" One of Bach's subordinates responded with the nickname the operators from the Hell's League had given Ajax.

"Get everyone fighting! Get our jets airborne as soon as possible! Get all available hands ready to fight!" Bach shouted out his orders as he hammered the ground with his cane.

He had ordered the operators to rest and gather at 11 pm to prepare for their final attack on the mining area at night. But it had barely been 3 hours since he gave the orders at 4 pm and only about an hour since he had gone to sleep, yet they were now under attack. He had always believed that the enemy would have a tough time getting through the front gates, but he never expected an airborne assault.

"The mech team that came over a few days ago has already left and our available operators are getting ready to fight, but our jets have been destroyed by him, and he's currently running rampant slaughtering our people..."

"Then what the fuck are you standing around for? Go! Surround him and make sure you put a bullet through his skull!" Bach barked out. He hadn't had time to put on some clothes and was standing outside in shorts and a tank top.

As for Ajax, he had destroyed 4 mechs and killed dozens of operators in just 3 minutes. Erica and Lily were soon dropped inside as well but did not group up with Ajax, they instead left together to a different location.

"Let them burn!" Ajax's voice came through their comms as he took cover behind a partly destroyed building. As soon as they received the orders, Lily and Erica's mechs each fired two incendiary missiles directly into the most densely populated area.

The border area was dry and there were many wooden houses around, so once the flames ignited, they encountered a shitton of fuel and spread fast. But they weren't done yet. As one area was burning to a crisp, the two of them aimed at different areas area and fired their remaining incendiary missiles. Most of the camp had been turned into a sea of orange within a few minutes.

The people of the Hell's League who were hiding in their homes were forced to run in the open, leading to more than 2,000 operators and more than 5,000 civilians and non-combatants. The streets of the residential area were crowded with people, some trampling over others as they all tried to escape.

However, Erica and Lily were waiting for them with their lightsabers in hand and all other weapon systems active. They launched an indiscriminate attack without hesitation. The sounds of crying and screaming could be heard throughout the entire camp as hundreds were split to pieces by bullets or disintegrated by the lightsabers that had a diameter of about half a meter.

The members of the Hell's League felt like they were in hell as they faced a rain of bullets and were surrounded by a sea of flames with two keepers that hunted them and dwarfed them in size.

***

The massacre had been going on for about 15 minutes and it was about now that the mech team of the guard had returned and joined Bach in rushing to the battlefield with a group of armed operators.

As they approached the battlefield and saw the flames that were running wild, the operators of the Hell's League couldn't help but feel like this scene seemed familiar. The only difference was that yesterday they were the slaughter party, and today they had become the slaughtered party. Retribution had come rather fast.

The mech team of the guard did not wait for Bach's order and quickly organized an attack plan and formation to approach Ajax's position. They had lost 6 Mechs and 4 pilots in yesterday's fight. Things were even worse this time around and they had already lost their 2 jets before their fight even started. Now only eight Parallax-level mechs remained with 2 of them being below 60% durability.

Ajax saw them from a distance and sneered at them. Instead of being a dumbass and running to them, he ran to the fleeing sea of people to use them as cover, turning some to paste under his mech's feet. These people were his best shields, he knew they wouldn't fire at him and kill their own just because they wanted him dead.

Sure enough, both the guard's mech team and Bach alongside his operators froze in place. People were running around in the residential area forcing them to hold their fire. They knew that if they did they would cause the deaths of the hundreds of people around Ajax.

Bach was not a merciful person, he was far from one and he didn't care about the lives of these people. However, these were the family members of his subordinates, it's not like he could just order his men to open fire on their families.

Ajax seeing that they didn't dare shoot at him, became even more brazen and stopped in the crowd. He then used his burst rifle and randomly opened fire into the crowd. The 15mm rounds tor through them and over a dozen were killed by his two 3-round bursts.

Ajax then turned to look at the mech team and pointed at them provocatively. He then pointed to the people around him and then stomped his foot, killing 3 more before he did the universal sign of a throat being slit.

*TN: WAR CRIMES BABY!!!! No the original didn't have as many of them as my edit.*

Under the full moon and the light of the fire, Ajax's atrocities could be seen by most people in the Hell's League, and everyone gritted their teeth fiercely. The light reflecting off his mech combined with the smoke, blood, and the purple shine of his Mech's eyes made Ajax seem like a demon who had been let loose on the world with the sole purpose of killing.

They now felt the feelings that the members of the Lazoole Society felt yesterday. They were heartbroken, rage boiled through them, yet there was nothing they could do.

Then they saw two mechs emerge from the flames and smoke behind Ajax, each with a lightsaber in hand. One was painted a vibrant red, the other a childish pink, but both were covered with blood. They were slightly shorter than this blue demon but taller than their mechs which informed the experienced guard mech team that these two were Rakshasa-Level mechs.

They were, of course, Lily and Erica, the two arsonists who had lit almost everything they could on fire. If Ajax hadn't given the orders to come rendezvous because the enemies were coming, they would have to continue burning it all to the ground...

However, they didn't stop their massacre. As they made their way toward Ajax, Erica kept on cutting people down. The impressionable Lily who just wanted revenge followed suit, but in a more effective way. She put her lightsaber away and shot everyone she saw. Civilian, operator, man, woman, child, young and old, she didn't discriminate and mowed them all down the same.

Ajax was right when he told her that revenge would not revive her family, but it was something that would alleviate the pain in her heart. This scene nearly caused the operators of the Hell's League to collapse. The enemy killed their family members right in front of their eyes, but they couldn't even fire their guns.

Ajax took advantage of this opportunity and attacked the mech team of the guard with his anti-equipment energy bombardment that he fired from time to time. The mech team could only raise their shields to defend and move forward slowly. Even if they were well-trained, they had no good way to deal with the situation they were currently in.

A few minutes later Bach reluctantly evacuated his men and retreated from the battlefield ahead. Ajax led Lily and Erica to retreat, using some of the buildings that weren't on fire as cover and started to exchange fire with the mech team and the Hell's League.

They had one Warlock-level mech and two Rakshasa-level mechs. As long as they coordinate well, they could fight off more than a dozen Parallax-level mechas, let alone the 8 that stood before them.

Ajax no longer hid his firepower and his missile ports opened one after the other, sending the missiles flying across the night sky. The orange hue from their rockets was the only giveaway that they had been fired.

The mech team of the guard had fought Ajax before and he had no such weaponry, so it was a move that caught them off-guard and in a dense position. The ones in front would be on the receiving end of the strike and if they dodged then the ones behind would be hit.

The 10 missiles found their marks and destroyed 4 mechs. Although the effect was remarkable, Ajax was not pleased with them since they were quite expensive. Over 800,000 eddies had been wasted in less than an hour, it was almost as if this was a waste of money...

Ajax had felt a sting in his pocket, but Bach had felt a piercing pain in his pocket. The mech squad he had cultivated by himself has either been destroyed or is defending the newly occupied areas. The mech team of the guard team had become his main force and they too, were falling once after the other.